Trees - Molly Ledford & Billy Kelly

Trees album cover

Artist: Molly Ledford & Billy Kelly

Album: Trees

Age Range: 5 through 9

Description: I could probably write a thousand words reviewing this album from Lunch Money mastermind Ledford and the Pennsylvania-based Kelly.  Instead, I decided to review the album on NPR.  Trying to fit sound clips, host intro and extro, and narrative into about 3 minutes and 15 seconds tends to cut down on the number of words one can squeeze in.  Having said that, let me just say that I love this album -- the interplay between Ledford's sweeping palette and Kelly's precise and often humorous views, the interplay between Ledford and Kelly themselves, ably assisted by producer Dean Jones.  Kids will dig different songs for different reasons.

You can stream the entire album here.  I hope there isn't an album as good as this one this year, because I'm not sure my heart could take it.  Get it.  Highly recommended.

Raise a Ruckus - Hullabaloo

Artist: Hullabaloo 

Album: Raise a Ruckus 

Age Range: 3 to 7

Description: Hullabaloo has always taken a fairly low-key approach to its music on record, but over time Steve Denyes and Brendan Kremer have gradually widened the number of folks present in the studio so that it's a full band.  For their 2012 album Raise a Ruckus , the duo brought in producer Tor Hyams and a number of guest musicians, including Lunch Money's Molly Ledford, Marcy Marxer, and Buck Howdy.  The result is an album that retains the "organic, free range" folk-music feel that's always been essential to the band but opens up just enough stylistically to make it the most well-rounded release yet from them -- "My Eyes" is a refinement of Denyes' celebration of nature, while "Trash Is My Treasure" marries that natural sensibility to a silly celebration of seagulls -- it's a fine, fine song.  The band's best album yet.  Recommended.  

Note: I received a copy of the album for possible review. 

Science Fair - Various Artists

Artist: Various Artists (Spare the Rock Records)

Album: Science Fair

Age Range: 5 to 10

Description: A kids' album, but one with ambitions.   Designed to raise awareness about the gender gap in science -- something happens between grade school and grad school -- the album succeeds that without forgetting that awareness-raising combined with dull music is pretty much a press release on a shiny disk.  A diverse set of musicians both kindie and kindie-friendly pitch in on a set of constant-surprising tracks.  Songs are both extroverted (the Nields' "Butterfly" and Wunmi's "Rainbow") and introverted (Frances England's "Goldilocks Zone" and Elizabeth Mitchell's recording of a Molly Ledford original, "Phytoplankton"), and typically focus on the questioning mindset of a scientist rather than nuts-and-bolts explanations of How Things Work.  Highly recommended.  (Listen to my NPR review here.)